Cop helps little kids be safe in cars

What you don’t know about correctly using “Child Safety Seats” could actually kill your child. See what dozens of East Portlanders learned from a traffic cop ‚Äìalso a father ‚Äì about these life-saving devices ‚Ä¶

Walking away versus carried away
Barnum illustrates his point by telling stories of two very similar crashes.

“A car was hit in a grinding T-bone [side impact] collision by an SUV going at least 30 MPH. The truck struck right where the child was sitting. When I arrived on scene, I found the child properly secured in with a seatbelt in a ‘booster’ seat. The result: The child walked away, without a scratch, completely safe and unharmed ‚Äì not even a bruise.”

Barnum looks down, speaks in a lower voice and says the outcome was tragically different in a very similar crash, also involving a young child in a booster seat.

“In this accident, the child in the booster seat was only secured by the lap belt, not the shoulder strap. She had severe internal abdominal injuries; we thought she wouldn’t live. Fortunately OHSU’s Dornbecher hospital was able to save her.”

Putting the ‘safe’ into safety seats
We caught up with Barnum at a Child Safety Seat Clinic in Oak Grove on February 10. “Over half the folks we’ve seen here have been from Inner Southeast Portland,” he says.

The purpose of the event, held in partnership with Alliance for Community Traffic Safety, is helping parents learn how to correctly use their safety seats.

Barnum is helping Heather Hunt, a Sellwood resident. “Parker’s grown into a new car seat. We wanted to get it installed correctly.”

Officer Barnum goes over the child safety seat checklist, making sure Heather’s baby, Parker Hunt, will be safe in his new seat.

The officer makes sure the checklist is complete, as he completes his visit with Hunt: “The seat is new; the owner’s manual is with it; it conforms to safety standards; it passed the ‘pinch’ test; and the safety belt can easily be secured to the seat.”

“Things I learned today,” Hunt tells us, “are the importance making sure your child’s safety seat is secure, so it can’t slide from side to side. And, I now understand the importance of having the baby’s restraints positioned correctly around his shoulder blades.”

As she drove off, Hunt thanked Barnum, saying “This was very, very valuable for me ‚Äì and Parker.”

Barnum takes one last look to make sure this young passenger will be safe in his new seat.

83% improperly installed
We learned from Barnum that Child Safety Seat Clinic technicians report finding that 83% of all seats are not installed properly.

“Had these people not come in,” Barnum says, “they’d still be out on the road, unintentionally risking the lives of their kids. These parents have the best intentions for protecting their children. But, with car seat technology rapidly changing, properly using them can be confusing.”

Most common problem seen
The most common problem, Barnum explains, is that the harness system, in the car safety seat, tends to be too-loosely secured. “There shouldn’t be slack in the straps.”

When the straps are too loose, he shows us, the child can be ejected out of the car safety seat into the car itself, at high velocity. “The crash force dynamics take a real toll on the children who are ejected.”

A parent’s prospective
“It is up to the parents to protect their little kids who can’t protect themselves,” Barnum says.

“I have two boys myself. When I go to a crash and see a child walk away from a severe accident because they are protected ‚Äì it can bring a tear to my eye. You look at them and think, ‘Thank goodness someone cared enough to do it right’.”

Learn more
Discover vital information about using child safety seats, and future clinic locations and dates at www.ACTSOREGON.org, or call toll-free: 1-800-772-1315.